Obama sheds a tear for campaign staff

THE newly-minted US President, Barack Obama, has become the latest world leader to raise with Julia Gillard her misogyny speech during a private conversation.

Ms Gillard, who was in Bali on Friday for a regional democracy forum, was one of about 13 world leaders who spoke to Mr Obama over the phone to congratulate him for his election victory this week.

Asked whether her speech was raised during the conversation, Ms Gillard said ''it is safe to say he was aware of my speech in the Parliament''.

Barack Obama … Gillard says he was aware of her speech in Parliament. Photo: AP

Before arriving in Bali, Ms Gillard was in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, for the Asia-Europe Meeting.

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She said she was approached by fellow leaders about her speech, including the French President, Francois Hollande, and the Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

''The President of France congratulated me on the speech, as did the Prime Minister of Denmark, and some other leaders, just casually as I've moved around, have also mentioned it to me,'' Ms Gillard said in Laos.

Ms Gillard gave the speech on October 9 in opposing a no-confidence motion Mr Abbott moved against the then-speaker of the House of Representatives, Peter Slipper.

She blasted Mr Abbott as a sexist and a misogynist, and the speech resonated with many professional women, regardless of political leaning.

It was widely covered internationally, too, making headlines in the US, India, Canada, Britain and South Africa, and was watched on YouTube 300,000 times in one day.

Since then, Labor has been seeking to exploit Mr Abbott's perceived unpopularity among women voters, to the extent his wife, Margie, was moved to speak out in support of her husband.

Ms Gillard said she had a ''warm discussion of congratulations'' with Mr Obama.